Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Poor newspapers

Newspapers or Spinpapers? The front page of the Herald would reinforce my view that our organ of information is the latter. Which side do you think Granny wants us to support in this Fiji business? There are large pictures of the two main protagonists on the front page. On the left we have Admiral/Air Commodore/Field Marshal Bananarama looking like he's just returned from snacking on babies and on the right we have the avuncular PM (whose name escapes me) looking like he's fresh from reading bedtime stories to babies. Not terribly interested in the story so I didin't read it but the visual impact was very striking. That in itself is a bit scary - conveying an idea just in two pictures. The political cartoon is a very old instrument of influencing the prole's thinking - dating back centuries.
Not much else took my fancy this morning - I must be getting old; I've only the attention span to look at the pictures. Speaking of which, an image of Eva the Bulgarian caught my eye (as it would) and I rather foolishly read the article that accompanied it. It is written about an analysis of 'new laddism' penned by a psychologist. I had thought that this sort of writing had faded out with big hair and disco. It uses as its examples of despicable attitude 'The Game of Two Halves' and 'The Sports Cafe'. Ellis (in particular), Ridge and Salizzo are put up as examples of everything sexist and unpleasant. Female dancers are referred to as 'Dancer 2' whereas male members of the band are referred to by name. Shots of Eva the Bulgarian, when she was out 'reporting', were framed to emphasise her lips, breasts or buttocks and so it goes on.
I don't watch 'Game of Two halves' because I find the playing the goat gets in the way of the sporting quiz. I used to really enjoy the BBC's 'A Question of Sport' where there was a lot of good sports questions and minimal (but not zero) distraction. I thought they got the balance right. I used to watch 'The Sport's Cafe' a bit but it really was bit repetitive and I turned it off about half way through most episodes. No balance. But that's the key - if you don't like it, for whatever reason, turn it off. Don't go and apply to someone for a research grant (which at the end of the paper trail will probably come out of my pocket) so you can write a thesis on ideas that went out with the Ark which you later turn into your fifteen minutes of fame in the national press. Pathetic.

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